Rib-Roughened Cooling Channel Research Articles

Film Cooling Extraction Effects on the Aero-Thermal Characteristics of Rib Roughened Cooling Channel Flow

The present study is geared towards quantifying the effects of film cooling holes on turbine internal cooling passages. In this regard, tests are conducted in a generic stationary model, with evenly distributed rib-type perturbators at 90 deg, constituting a passage blockage ratio of H/Dh = 0.3 and pitch-to-height ratio of P/H = 10. The 1/3H diameter surface-perpendicular film cooling holes are employed at a distance of 5/3H downstream of the preceding rib. Through liquid crystal thermometry measurements, the aero-thermal effects of a change in suction ratio are contrasted for various configurations (Re = 40,000 SR = 0–6), and compared with the analogous aerodynamic literature, enabling heat transfer distributions to be associated with distinct flow structures. At increased suction ratio, the size of the separation bubble downstream of the rib is observed to diminish, triggering globally an earlier reattachment; in addition to low-momentum hot fluid extraction via film cooling suction. Hence, in the presence of active flow extraction, higher overall heat transfer characteristics are observed throughout the channel. Moreover, the findings are generalized via friction factor and Nusselt number correlations, along with an analytical 20-pitch passage model. SR ∼ 3.5 is observed to provide favorable characteristics of pitch-to-pitch uniform suction ratio, lack of hot fluid ingestion and to sustain the highest passage averaged heat transfer.

A New Statistical-Based Correlation for the Rib Fin Effects on the Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient in a Rib-Roughened Cooling Channel

Heat transfer coefficients in the cooling cavities of turbine airfoils are greatly enhanced by the presence of discrete ribs on the cavity walls. These ribs introduce two heat transfer enhancing features: a significant increase in heat transfer coefficient by promoting turbulence and mixing, and an increase in heat transfer area. Considerable amount of data are reported in open literature for the heat transfer coefficients both on the rib surface and on the floor area between the ribs. Many airfoil cooling design software tools, however, require an overall average heat transfer coefficient on a rib-roughened wall. Dealing with a complex flow circuit in conjunction with180∘bends, numerous film holes, trailing-edge slots, tip bleeds, crossover impingement, and a conjugate heat transfer problem; these tools are not often able to handle the geometric details of the rib-roughened surfaces or local variations in heat transfer coefficient on a rib-roughened wall. On the other hand, assigning an overall area-weighted average heat transfer coefficient based on the rib and floor area and their corresponding heat transfer coefficients will have the inherent error of assuming a 100% fin efficiency for the ribs, that is, assuming that rib surface temperature is the same as the rib base temperature. Depending on the rib geometry, this error could produce an overestimation of up to 10% in the evaluated rib-roughened wall heat transfer coefficient. In this paper, a correction factor is developed that can be applied to the overall area-weighted average heat transfer coefficient that, when applied to the projected rib-roughened cooling cavity walls, the net heat removal from the airfoil is the same as that of the rib-roughened wall. To develop this correction factor, the experimental results of heat transfer coefficients on the rib and on the surface area between the ribs are combined with about 400 numerical conduction models to determine an overall equivalent heat transfer coefficient that can be used in airfoil cooling design software. A well-known group method of data handling (GMDH) scheme was then utilized to develop a correlation that encompasses most pertinent parameters including the rib geometry, rib fin efficiency, and the rib and floor heat transfer coefficients.

Experimental Investigation of the Aerothermal Performance of a High Blockage Rib-Roughened Cooling Channel

The present study deals with a detailed experimental investigation of the turbulent flow inside a rib-roughened turbine blade cooling channel. The measurements are carried out in a stationary straight channel with high blockage ribs installed on one wall. The main objective is to enhance the understanding and deepen the analysis of this complex flow field with the help of highly resolved particle image velocimetry measurements. A quasi-three-dimensional view of the flow field is achieved, allowing the identification of the main time-averaged coherent structures. The combined analysis of the present aerodynamic results with available heat transfer data emphasizes the role of the mean and fluctuating flow features in the heat transfer process. In particular, the stream wise/normal to the wall component of the Reynolds stress tensor is shown to be strictly related to the heat transfer rate on the channel surfaces. A correlation to estimate the heat transfer field from the aerodynamic data is presented for the high blockage rib roughened channel flow.